Clashes erupt in Gaza as US Embassy in Jerusalem opens

The Israeli military said it was responding to violence from the protesters to defend Israel’s border.

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Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel linked the violence to the USA moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, even as most governments with diplomatic ties to Israel have kept their embassies in Tel Aviv and condemned the US action ordered by President Donald Trump.

It was reported earlier on Tuesday that Gaza health officials had confirmed the Palestinian death toll stood at 58, which includes 57 people killed by IDF fire and a baby who died from tear gas inhalation.

“You can only build peace on truth, and the truth is that Jerusalem has been and will always be the capital of the Jewish people, the capital of the Jewish state”, he said. “Who?” Mladenov asked. He called on Israel to protect their borders proportionally, and to investigate every incident that causes loss of life.

The Palestinian National Authority, Iran, Turkey, and Egypt, as well as worldwide human rights groups, condemned Israel for using extensive fire against mostly unarmed protesters.

“The Israeli government has refused the right of Palestinians to self-determination for far too long”.

He’s also concerned about the opening of the USA embassy in Jerusalem.

The UK, France, and Germany have responded more forcefully to the violence than the U.S. and have expressed concern about Israel’s response to the demonstrations against the new United States embassy in Jerusalem.

Kuwait requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, which diplomats later said the U.S. had blocked.

There had already been weeks of protests and clashes along the Gaza border, with 106 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire there since March 30. The protests were supposed to end on May 14, the day on the Gregorian calendar when Israel became an independent state 70 years ago.

It’s also worth noting that Hamas is providing $100 to each family that engages in the border riots and is threatening any families that don’t engage in the riots to be smeared as “collaborators” with Israel.

“These are things that were negotiated between Palestinian and Israeli parties in the past that we would leave this as a neutral space until we have reached that place in our conflict where we can discuss this, and unfortunately western powers have not allowed this peace to remain and have inflamed the situation even more”.

Most of the worldwide community does not formally recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and nearly all embassies are located in Tel Aviv.

“East Jerusalem is occupied land”.

“Israel is an oppressive and murderous entity and its politicians and officers must be taken to the International Criminal Court”, Amjad Shamout, the committee’s chairman, said in a statement.

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But Guatemala, which received support from Israel in its counter-insurgency campaigns in the 1980s, plans to open an embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday.